


Ballast

by sanidine



Series: Sunderer [3]
Category: NXT, WWE, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Dialogue Heavy, F/F, Gen, Kayfabe Compliant, M/M, Magic-Users, Multi, POV Alternating, Shifters, Swearing, Vomiting, Werewolves, people say fuck a whole lot, rated for language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2016-07-29
Packaged: 2018-07-27 14:03:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7621204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanidine/pseuds/sanidine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had probably been a mistake, bringing them all back to the apartment. The bickering had not stopped the entire ride. It had calmed down a little since reaching crescendo when Cass had refused to go through the Taco Bell drive through, but Blake and Murphy were still goading Enzo and Enzo, bless him, wasn't about to back down from anything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ballast

**Author's Note:**

> Heads up, this isn't going to make much sense if you don't read the other parts. Picks up where the first two left off.

“Taco Bell!” 

“We’ve been over this. We’re not takin’ you to Taco Bell!”

“Well I gotta eat something! I'm starving, man.”

“Me too. Why couldn't we just stop and get tacos?”

“Because me and Big Cass ain't driving for Uber, how you doin’. We’re not running a chauffeur service here.”

“How you doin’.” Cass muttered under his breath as he finally got the door unlocked.

The five of them spilled into the apartment, Blake and Murphy elbowing Enzo in a quick struggle to be the first ones through the door. Alexa stood to the back, scowling and rolling her eyes as she followed them in. Cass locked the door behind her, throwing the deadbolt. 

Mr. Regal has given Cass a few rounds of silverflake birdshot when they'd been briefed on the whole Baron Corbin situation. The lock wouldn't stop Corbin if he came after them, but it might give Cass an extra second or two to aim.

“You  _ did _ just give us a ride though. That's what a chauffeur does, isn't it?”

“Only because we were under  _ duress _ , yo. Big Cass is gonna be cleaning your stink outta there for a week, right Cass?”

Cass just nodded, tired. The bickering had not stopped the entire ride. It had calmed down a little since reaching crescendo when Cass had refused to go through the Taco Bell drive through, but Blake and Murphy were still goading Enzo and Enzo, bless him, wasn't about to back down from anything.

It had probably been a mistake, bringing them all back to the apartment. But Cass hadn’t know what else to do. Thank God Carmella was over at Bayley’s for girls night or date night or whatever. Cass wasn't entirely sure what it was (“You know. We just talk shop and watch old matches or movies and sometimes we make out. Girl stuff, Cassady,  _ geez. _ ”) but regardless, it made things at least a little earlier. 

Carmella knew what was up with him and Enzo’s side hustle, of course. But if she would have been there to see Alexa Bliss strutting around like she owned the place and slamming the door to barricade herself in the apartment’s only bathroom, well. It would have gone over like a lead blimp, how you doin’.

“Yo, get your mitts off the protein bars!” Enzo snapped, grabbing the box away and stashing it back in the cupboard. “That shit’s expensive.”

“But we’re  _ hungry _ .” One of them ground out, sounding on edge. Blake, or maybe Murphy. Cass had a hard time telling them apart when they weren’t wearing their ring gear with the names on the legs. “Don’t you have some poptarts or something?”

“Yeah. Or what about Chef Boyardee? Y’all are Italian, right?”

“Chef Boyardee? Are kidding me?” Enzo looked like he was about to blow a blood vessel. “Nothing about that is real Italian.”

“Tastes like it to me.” 

“Yeah. All the best Italian food comes from a can, right?” It sounded amazingly stupid, even for them, but Cass caught the look that Blake and Murphy traded on the sly.

“No way, that’s it.” Enzo was an alarming shade of red as he jabbed a finger at them. “You two sit the hell down, how you doin’. I'm a certified G in the streets and in the sheets, on the mic  _ and _ with the the mixing bown. Now you're gonna stay back and watch the master at work.”

Maybe Alexa’s cronies were smarter than Cass had given them credit for, because Enzo didn't even seem to realize that he had been set up. Blake and Murphy just grinned as they took two of the barstools at the counter, watching as Enzo flipped on one of the burners, started digging through the cabinets.

Cass left them to continue berating each other, heading down the hall to knock on door to the bathroom.

“What.”

“How you doin’?”

Instead of answering Alexa just yanked the door open to stare at him, defensive. She looked different, without the heavy makeup that she wore in the ring, but no less pissed than normal.

The strong chemical odor of Carmella’s nail polish remover slapped Cass in the face, made his eyes water as soon as he took a breath. Alexa didn't seem bothered by the fumes, hadn't even bothered to turn on the fan. Boiled frogs and all that - Alexa probably couldn't even smell it. But Cass could feel his eyes watering and the sharp migraine spike drilling into the right side of his brain, deeper with every breath he took.

Cass knew weird stuff when he saw it. Even if he didn't know exactly what those symbols on Alexa’s skin had meant, he knew that she had been fucking with some real powerful stuff. Alexa had taken off her zippered sweatshirt and Cass could see the smeary mess where she was in the process of cleaning off... whatever the hell those markings were.

“Enzo’s making some food for your boys. You want him to save you any?”

Alexa relaxed incrementally, stepped back from the door so that Cass could lean in the frame and watch her as she got back to cleaning up. The sink was already filled with wads of sodden, inky toilet paper, and Carmella’s bottle of nail polish remover was sitting half empty on the counter.

“That’s good. They're being pains in the ass about it, but they  _ do _ need to eat. Blake and Murphy burned a lot of energy back there.”

“What about you?” Cass prodded. 

“Not as much, but I'll eat anything. I'm not picky.” Alexa stared at her reflection in the mirror, distracted as she wiped across her sternum. “Our fridge at hone is mostly just full of -”

\---

Hard liquor and lunch meat. 

Baron growled as he slammed his fridge shut. He hesitated for a second, then opened it again to stare at the mostly empty interior.

He had to admit that Corey might have had a good idea when he had suggested stopping for food. But Baron hadn’t wanted to hang out any longer than necessary once he had managed to convince Corey that he was fine -  no concussion, just some bruised knuckles and a bloody nose, nothing to worry about. 

If he spent much more time with Corey then Baron’s thin story about beating the crap out of the two guys he'd caught slashing his tires was liable to get confused and picked apart. It had taken every ounce of mental energy Baron had left to make Corey scram without raising even more red flags. 

Of course Baron Corbin wasn't going to file a police report - that part wasn't hard for Corey to swallow. But Baron had a hard time explaining to Corey why he was so certain that the surveillance cameras in the parking lot hadn’t caught anything. Why he was absolutely not going to complain to Regal about security and unhinged fans. 

Now that Baron was alone again, all of the adrenaline fueled energy that had kept him going since Alexa’s attack had finally drained away. He was exhausted down to the marrow of his bones and so hungry that his stomach felt like it was starting to digest itself. 

Sure, that baloney smelled like it was on the edge of going bad. But it was still protein. Meat. Baron devoured it almost as soon as he had opened the package to sniff check it.

There was a container of sugar on the counter next to his coffee machine that was Baron’s next target. He peeled the lid off and poured some of it straight into his mouth, chewing at the gritty crystals until they dissolved and he could swallow. With no one around to watch, Baron wasn't going to bother to pretend to be civilized. 

Feeling a little better already, Baron drank two huge glasses of water and collapsed on the couch, letting his head fall back and his eyes close. His fingers and toes were still buzzing as he healed, and Baron felt just wiped out. Exhausted. He was going to order a pizza and eat the entire thing and then he was going to pass out and sleep for two days and then he was going to start figuring out what the fuck Alexa Bliss had done to him.

Baron was scrolling through the cracked screen on his phone to find the number of a pizza place when he startled out of his dozing thoughts by a knock at the door. He dropped his phone and sat up in a flash.

Baron was so tired that he almost didn't care if it was the little old lady next door asking to borrow a cup of flour or that bitch Bliss come to try and finish him off. Almost. But he wasn't going down without a fight, he wouldn't let her surprise him this time.  The knock came again, and Baron realized that it wasn't coming from the front door. It was coming from the glass sliding door behind him. Fuck, he was even more tired than he thought if he was confusing which directions sounds were coming from. Or maybe it was a residual effect from getting his ass so squarely handed to him.

The vertical blinds were pulled but not closed. Baron could see through them, and standing on the other side of the glass was the odd, bulky form of his one time tag partner. Rhyno.

Baron scowled at him but Rhyno was undeterred, knocking on the glass again. Longer, harder, making eye contact with him the entire time. It took Baron a minute of fiddling to open the lock, but as soon as he had flipped the latch Rhyno was pulling the door open and storming into Baron’s apartment as if he owned the place.

“What the fuck?” 

“What are you doing here?” 

They said it almost in unison, staring at each other. Rhyno hadn’t been seen in months. He looked red, sweaty, as if he had been running in the humid Florida night, but he didn't sound winded at all.

Rhyno was perhaps the oldest shifter that Baron had ever met. He wasn't a werewolf though, and it would have been way too on the nose for him to be able to shift into an actual rhino. Baron didn't know what Rhyno’s deal was because Rhyno hadn't told him. They had simply sniffed each other out when they had been paired in the tournament, it wasn't like they had ever  _ talked _ about it.

“What the fuck?” Rhyno said again. Baron bristled at the tone.

“What do you mean, what the fuck?”

“I mean, what the fuck did you do to piss someone off so bad?”

Baron loomed over Rhyno, but the other man just stared up at him. Unimpressed, unintimidated. Baron hated that.

“What do you know?” He reached out to grab Rhyno by the collar but Rhyno slapped his hand away, the smack on his knuckles hard enough to make Baron hiss. 

“Keep your paws to yourself, boy.”

_ (‘you should have kept your dirty little dog hands to yourself’ _ Alexa whispered in the back of Baron’s brain, and he could almost feel the phantom impacts of her boots against his ribs.)

“What do you know about it?” Baron ground out the words like they were gravel in his mouth, his fury barely restrained now at the memory of how he had been held down and helpless. “Did someone set me up?”

“I don’t know shit.” Rhyno said as he stepped around Baron. “Except that everyone sensitive within twenty miles probably felt that power slap down on Full Sail. Then when I showed up to see what was going on, you -” Rhyno poked Baron in the stomach, ignoring Baron’s death glare. “-  _ you _ were looking like shit and driving off with that announcer.”

“So you followed me to my house?”

Rhyno just shrugged, unbothered by what a weirdo he was. But he looked very, very bothered by the time Baron got done telling him everything that Baron could remember happening with Alexa Bliss and her lackeys.

“She let you live?”

“Barely.” Baron looked away, suddenly embarrassed “I think someone showed up and made her stop but I can't remember.”

“Hmm.” 

Rhyno didn't say anything else, seemingly deep in thought. If that was even possible. But Baron was all keyed up again just from talking about they had done to him. He was pacing back and forth in the kitchen, clenching and unclenching his fists. Rhyno seemed to know more about this type of thing than Baron did, which was annoying but not surprising. 

It wasn't like Baron had ever had anyone to teach him.

“What is she?”

“Don't know.” Rhyno replied “I've run into people like that a couple times on the road but I got no idea how it works. Witches, maybe.”

“Well, I'm going to find out.” Baron ground his teeth together as he went back to pacing. “I'm going to find her and I'm going to rip her fucking head o-”

It was a good thing Baron was already in the kitchen - at least he was able to make it to the sink in time to vomit. The last time the nausea had hit him, Baron’s stomach had been empty. Now it was full of water and sugar and old baloney but it emptied out again pretty fast as Baron puked his guts out, head hanging over the sink drain. 

“Fucking -  not again.”

Over the sound of his heartbeat in his ears Baron could hear Rhyno walking up behind him. At least Rhyno didn't try to pat him on the back - Baron might have snapped and ripped his hand off.

“Keeps happening?”

Baron nodded, weak, his head still spinning as he hung over the sink with spit dripping out of his mouth. He swallowed, his throat raw and his voice rough as he muttered

“Yeah, not sure what sets it off. Before I thought it was just from the pain, but I don't even hurt that bad anymore.”

Rhyno was quiet for a long time, probably enjoying Baron’s lack of dignity. But he didn't sound happy when he said “It could be a curse.”

“Or it could be that I just got the shit kicked out of me.” Baron wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, grimacing. “One way or another I'm going to find out and then I am going to find her -”

Then Baron was puking again. Turned out his stomach wasn't quite empty after all. When his stomach settled and the rolling waves of nausea subsided, Baron turned to find that Rhyno had made himself at home. Sitting on Baron’s couch, feet kicked up on the coffee table, looking at

“Don't touch my phone.”

“Too late.” Rhyno didn't even bother to look up “Were you gonna order pizza?”

“It doesn't matter to you. You're leaving."

“Yeah, right. Tough guy. Don't be an idiot.” Rhyno tapped something on the screen and held Baron’s phone to his ear as the line started ringing. “You don't know if she's gonna come after you and finish the job.”

\---

“Corbin is going to come after you, you know that right? We can let you stay here tonight and drop you off at the bus stop in the morning.” Cass offered.

“Really?” Alexa scowled. “We can’t even get a ride back to the performance center? You’re going to make us take the fucking bus?”

“No. Why would you go back there? I meant the Greyhound bus. All three of you need to get out of town.”

“One, because that’s where my car is. Two, no. We don’t. We’re not leaving.”

“Are you serious? Corbin’s gonna heal fast. And after what you did to him, he’s going to hunt you down and tear you apart.”

“He can try.” Alexa grinned, mean, and slapped the half-erased symbol on her stomach. The ringing flesh-on-flesh smack of it echoed like an in-ring chop, too loud in the small bathroom. “This one’s an Aversion. I beat it into him pretty good, too. Right in the liver.”

Cass didn’t really understand what that meant, but he just made a mental note of it and didn't say anything as Alexa continued.

“Corbin is going to puke his guts out every time he so much as thinks about trying to get revenge. And he's going learn  _ reeeaal _ fast that even being even being near me isn't good for his health.” 

It made Cass feel a little sick to his stomach to remember how Alexa had looked when she had been beating Corbin, gleeful and vicious. He wasn't the best at hiding his emotions, and Alexa must have seen something on his face because she added

“Don’t worry, he’s not smart enough to figure out how to outsource around it. But even if he did, we all know he doesn’t have any friends. Graves, maybe. But you know -” Alexa mimics slamming her head against the bathroom wall a couple of times while she keeps wiping away the smeared purpleblack ink on her belly. “Ha! Not a threat.”

Well that was just insensitive.

They were quiet for a while, then. Cass could hear Enzo crashing around in the kitchen and probably dirtying every dish that they owned - his food was great, but Enzo was like a tornado in the kitchen when he got in a mood about it. The smell of the sauce simmering on the stove was enough to cut the overwhelming acetone odor in the bathroom, even as Alexa dumped more of the nail polish remover on another wad of toilet paper.

“You're going to keep your mouth shut too, if you know what's good for you.” Alexa’s threat was almost belated, and she didn't look at Cass when she said it but her voice was calm and serious. 

It made Cass stand up a little straighter, all seven feet of him upright in the doorway where he had been slouching before. Alexa glanced at him for a second before she snorted, unimpressed, and went back to cleaning off the symbols on the bacKS of her knees.

“Thought your people didn't go after humans.”

That got her attention back to Cass real fast. 

“What the fuck do  _ you _ know about it?” she glared daggers at him, the wisps of hair that had escaped her ponytail sticking to her face. She pushed them back with one hand, a short angry motion. Cass did his best to keep his face neutral, impassive.

“Not much.” Honesty was the best policy, but Cass figured he was walking a fine line and he didn't want to rattle her anymore than he already had. “I mean, I knew you were from Ohio. But I didn't think anything about it until tonight.”

“Hmpf.” Alexa shook her head “You don't know shit. And speaking of. You seem to know all about Corbin’s dirty little secret.”

Cass nodded.

“And how, exactly, did you figure that out?”

“Me and Enzo, we got a side gig with Mr. Regal. Just keepin’ an eye on things, how you doin’.”

“What the hell. How does Regal know?”

“Why wouldn't he?” Cass raised an eyebrow at Alexa, who was doing her best to stare him down. “I know you keep it pretty casual but Mr. Regal is still, you know. Our  _ boss _ .”

“So. Regal knows about Corbin?”

“Yeah. And the other ones.”

When Alexa Bliss stared at him like that it made Cass feel like he was an ant under a magnifying glass. Cass could have slapped himself. Damn his big mouth. 

“Which other ones?”

“Classified.” Yeah, good. That sounded official as hell.

“The fuck do you mean, classified?”

“I mean I'm not going to tell you. Check your dictionary - it's like doctor patient confidentiality.”

“ _ You _ are not a doctor.” 

“And  _ you _ aren't very patient.” Cass crossed his arms over his chest, not willing to budge no matter how much she glared at him.

“Whatever.” Alexa looked like she wanted to pick a fight which, to be fair, was how she looked most of the time. But she got herself under control, taking deep breaths before she asked “Does Regal know about me?”

“Don't think so.” Cass shook his head slowly as he tried to think back. “Never mentioned it to us, anyways.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“But he will.” Alexa enunciated the words very slowly, as if she were speaking to a small child. “Because you are going to tell him.”

“Nah.” Cass shook his head again. “Don't see any reason why we gotta let him know just yet.”

Alexa didn't look relieved. If anything she just looked angrier.

“So what do you want from me in return? Cause I'm not telling you shit about ‘my people’.” Alexa made sarcastic little air quotes as she said the last two words, and Cass rolled his eyes.

“Nah. Don't want anything.”

“Nothing.” She repeated, glaring at him. “Really.”

It was flat. Not a question, but Cass answered it anyways. “Yep. I get the idea you can sorta turn it in and off, right?”

“Basically.”

“Right. So as long as you don't try to kill anyone else on the roster I think I could hold off on mentioning it to the GM.”

Alexa’s shoulders dropped and she snorted a laugh as she wadded up all the toilet paper in the sink and chucked it into the garbage. “Please. If I were trying to kill Corbin then he would already be dead.”

Cass didn’t really know what to say to that. Right as it was starting to get awkward, Enzo saved the day by shouting from the other room.

  
“Yo! Food’s ready!”

"Move it."

Alexa brushed by Cass as if he wasn't twice her size, as if she just assumed that he would get out of the way, which. He did. So it wasn't like she was wrong. Wondering - not for the first time - what he had gotten himself into, Cass followed along in her wake.

**Author's Note:**

> Short, but I needed to get this out so I can timeskip up to post-draft current time. I HAVE SO MANY IDEAS YOU GUYS . As always I write and edit everything on my phone, so please let me know if I've made any particularly terrible mistakes. Kudos and comments are loved!
> 
> [tumblr ](http://www.bingitoff.Tumblr.com)


End file.
